Hart Adds Her Name to the List of Those Who Want Riley’s Seat

Evelyn R. Hart, an 11-year veteran of the Newport Beach City Council and a leading proponent of building a new regional airport in the county, said she may run for the Board of Supervisors next year if board Chairman Thomas F. Riley retires.

Hart, 58, is the fourth local Republican to express an interest in the coveted 5th Supervisorial District seat. There is an increasing amount of speculation that Riley, a former Marine Corps brigadier general, will retire rather than run for another 4-year term. Riley, who is 76, has been bothered by chronic asthma in recent years. He said he will not decide until later this year whether to seek reelection in June, 1990.

Should Riley, who has served on the board since 1974, step aside, Hart said, she would be “very interested” in running for the seat. In an interview Friday, Hart said she has met with her “kitchen cabinet,” a group of close friends and advisers, to identify people who might contribute to a campaign and to assess her chances in what experts say could be one of the most expensive races in county history.

At least three others are exploring the possibility of running for Riley’s seat: Peter F. Buffa, mayor of Costa Mesa; Dana W. Reed, a Newport Beach lawyer and former state undersecretary of business, transportation and housing who now serves on the eight-member Orange County Transportation Commission; and Peer A. Swan, president of the Irvine Ranch Water District. All four say they will not run if Riley does.

The district stretches from Newport Beach to San Clemente along the coast, and it includes Irvine, Laguna Niguel and San Juan Capistrano. It encompasses some of the county’s wealthiest communities and also has the land on which much of the new development in Orange County is occurring. Among the district’s 292,605 voters, Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1.

Hart has been very much involved in the fight against offshore oil exploration and drilling. She also was a longtime opponent of county efforts to increase the number of flights at John Wayne Airport, but she did vote in favor of the 1985 out-of-court settlement that allowed the current expansion there. Still, she says, county officials should try to find a place within the county for another regional airport.

Hart has not specified where she believes that airport should be, but she did say that southern Orange County would be the logical area to consider because it is relatively undeveloped.

“I don’t see John Wayne handling the future air travel needs of this county,” Hart said. “In the best of all worlds, we need another airport inside Orange County. (Southern Orange) County works as well as any place.”

Camp Pendleton Proposal

She also said, however, that the Camp Pendleton Marine base should not be ruled out, principally because San Diego County, which also needs another airport, might agree to share the costs of building a commercial airfield there.

Hart, sensitive to the years of complaints about jet noise by Newport Beach residents, said she would not support any proposal that would lead to jets’ taking off over residential areas. “That’s just not acceptable,” she said.

A campaign for supervisor would be Hart’s second attempt in 2 years for a higher office.

A year ago, she ran in the primary against Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) in the 70th District. Although Hart was never formally censured by the local Republican Party, some party activists criticized her sharply for challenging a Republican incumbent. Hart said she does not believe that the controversy surrounding that race would hurt her in a campaign for supervisor.